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First step towards setting up
Farmers Field School in Kookalthorai

Seed Festival Kookalthorai

Here’s some good news from Kookalthorai Valley. As a first step towards setting up a Farmers Field School, Keystone Foundation hosted a traditional seed festival in Kookalthorai in collaboration with Thuadai Organic Farm school. Some of our active seed savers/seed keepers, farmers, fellows, youth etc from the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve participated in the event. The […]

Rainfall across the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve

Rainfall Data from automated and manual rain gauges collected by Keystone Foundation with help of community volunteers.The rain gauge IDs used in the visualization below correspond to the following locations. RG001 -Kotagiri RG002 -Coonoor RG003 -Aracode RG004 -Sigur RG008 -Konvakarai RG009 -Pillur To download the raw data used in the above visualizations, check out this […]

Water Quality and Quantity Monitoring in Wells in Aracode Region

Aracode Aracode region is the Eastern most part of the Nilgiris which falls under the Kotagiri Taluk. There are Kurumba and Irula settlements in the dense forests where we carry out inventory and monitoring of wells with the help of community volunteers. Along with the quantity of water available in different seasons the quality of […]

Celebrating World Water Monitoring Day

On 18th September 2018, we celebrated the World Water Monitoring Day with students from International Community School, Kotagiri and members of Kotagiri Citizen’s Collective.  We kicked off the event by visiting the spring near the Old Police Station in Kotagiri town where we could see sources of contamination affecting the spring. This was followed by […]

Land use change in Ambikapuram Valley, Coonoor

Land use change in the Ambikapuram Valley

Ambikapuram valley is an area of over 200 acres in Hubbathalai Panchayat, Coonoor Taluk in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. This valley is a typical example of many such across the district. There are springs in the upper reaches, streams and wetlands in the valley that are major sources of water supply. Changes in […]

Celebrating cultural ties to water!

Local communities, tribal and non-tribal, have a rich tradition linked to water resources. These are also reflected in their folk stories. Some of these have been compiled and included in the Calendars brought out by Keystone Foundation over the years. You can find them below. Tribal Festivals Calendar – 2017 Badaga Stories Calendar – 2017 […]

About Events

Stay updated with information about upcoming events as well as news of past events in this space. Celebrations of days of international significance such as World Water Day, World Wetland Day etc. as well as training programmes, workshops and other events will be covered here. We look forward to your participation!

About Resources

The Nilgiris Water Resource Center at Keystone Foundation is working towards improved capacities among all stakeholders in the region for sustainable water resource management. To this end, resource material is being developed in English and Tamil. These materials along with reports and other documents from Keystone’s work on water resources over the years are being […]

About Data

In the increasingly uncertain times that we are going through, especially from the point of view of weather and climate, access to timely and local data pertaining to water resources and related factors is of immense value. Good data can also help in making good resource management decisions, although it is by no means the […]

About Water & Culture

The local communities have a special relationship with water sources such as springs and wetlands. The Badaga settlements, known as hattys, mainly on hill tops, depended entirely on upper spring sources close to Shola forests and grasslands. This water is considered to be pure and the water sources are protected and worshiped once a year […]